Selfmade Zhoug Sauce (Spicy Cilantro Sauce)

Zhoug is one of the best ways to decorate up your favourite meats, veggies, and dips! Make home made zhoug sauce with the best components, together with recent jalapeño, cilantro, parsley, garlic, olive oil, and spices. You’ll need to put it on all the pieces!

If you happen to’re a fan of Peruvian inexperienced sauce, likelihood is good you’ll love zhoug. I take advantage of this spicy cilantro sauce so as to add a great deal of taste to all the pieces from salmon to rooster shawarma, and as a dressing for falafel.

A spoon dipped into a bowl of zhoug sauce.

We’re about to zhuzh issues up with vivid, flavor-packed Zhoug sauce. Zhoug, schug, or zhug, is a flexible home made condiment, and it’s considered one of my must-haves within the fridge on any given day. Originating within the Center East, Zhoug is a scrumptious spicy cilantro sauce comprised of a mix of peppers, garlic, recent herbs, and spices. I’ll present you learn how to make it with a handful of components in your blender!

Causes to Make Zhoug (Spicy Cilantro Sauce)

It’s fast and straightforward. All you might want to make it’s a few easy-to-find components and your blender or meals processor. It’s prepared to make use of in minutes.
A lot taste! There’s nothing fairly like Zhoug sauce. It’s slightly spicy (with the choice to adapt), slightly savory, with a mouthwatering mixture of recent herbs and spices. It goes properly with something and all the pieces.
Hold leftovers for days. When you’ve tasted zhoug, I simply know you’ll discover all types of how to make use of it, from marinating rooster to dressing roasted greens. Leftovers retailer properly within the fridge or freezer, so you can also make a double batch whilst you have the blender out.

Zhoug sauce ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.

Zhoug Sauce Components

The magic of zhoug comes down to some choose recent herbs and a handful of savory spices that give it its distinctive, advanced taste. I cowl those I take advantage of to make mine beneath! You’ll discover the complete recipe with the printable quantities within the recipe card after the put up, adopted by step-by-step images.

Jalapeño – I take advantage of jalapeño peppers as they’re simple to seek out. You may adapt the warmth stage of your zhoug sauce with hotter peppers, like habanero. Deseed the peppers to tame the warmth slightly.
Garlic – Contemporary cloves are greatest right here. In any other case, substitute ½ teaspoon of garlic paste per clove.
Contemporary Herbs – Freshly chopped cilantro and parsley.
Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed lemon is greatest, however bottled lemon juice works in a pinch. You may additionally substitute white or purple wine vinegar.
Spices – Floor cumin, coriander, cardamom, purple pepper flakes, and salt.
Olive Oil – I like to recommend a good-quality olive oil as you’ll style the distinction. Avocado oil is an effective substitute.

What Does It Style Like?

Zhoug is full of advanced flavors from mildly spicy jalapeños, vivid, citrusy lemon and garlic, earthy cumin, and candy, natural cardamom. Loads is happening, in the absolute best means! It’s what makes this sauce so wonderful and so versatile. Plus, in the event you make it at house, you may adapt the salt, spice, and different flavors to style.

Overhead view of a bowl of zhoug sauce with a spoon.

Zhoug vs. Chimichurri

Chimichurri is the Argentinian reply to Zhoug sauce. The primary distinction between the 2 inexperienced sauces is that chimichurri makes use of a mix of parsley, garlic, and oregano. In the meantime, Zhoug is heavy on cilantro. You’ll discover different variations, like Moroccan zhoug, that additionally include mint.

Methods to Use Zhoug Sauce

Zhoug is actually an all-around condiment. I wish to drizzle it over dips like hummus, or stir it into Macedonian taratur (much like tzatziki) for a spicy kick. These are only a few different simple concepts:

Marinade. Use Zhoug sauce to marinate your favourite proteins, like rooster or beef.
Dipping sauce. Serve this spicy inexperienced sauce alone or combined into yogurt as a zippy dipping sauce for rooster skewers, juicy rooster bites, or salmon bites.
Salad dressing. Add slightly further olive oil and toss your zhoug with a recent inexperienced Mediterranean salad or use it as a dressing for tabbouleh or couscous.
Topping. I take advantage of Zhoug sauce as a topping over salmon filets or rooster tagine, or I’ll serve it over grilled meats, like flank steak. It’s even nice drizzled over my household’s favourite Macedonian fried pork pizza.

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Mix the components. Place all the pieces besides the olive oil within the bowl of a meals processor. Pulse till all the pieces is chopped and beginning to come collectively.
Add olive oil. With the meals processor operating, pour the olive oil in by the highest of the lid. (Via the opening the place you may add liquid whereas the meals processor is operating.) As soon as all of the olive oil has been added, flip off the meals processor.
Scrape the bowl. Scrape down the perimeters and pulse just a few extra occasions till a thick sauce is fashioned.
Season to style. Style and alter the seasonings if wanted. You may add extra salt if you’d like it saltier, extra purple pepper flakes if you’d like it spicier. Add these changes 1/4 teaspoon at a time, mixing between additions, till you obtain your required taste.

Dietary information is an estimate and offered as courtesy. Values might differ in keeping with the components and instruments used. Please use your most popular dietary calculator for extra detailed information.

How you can Make Zhoug

Identical to making ready home made pesto sauce or blender Hollandaise, making zhoug is straightforward to do in your meals processor:

Fresh garlic cloves, chopped jalapeno peppers, cilantro leaves, and seasonings in the bowl of a food processor. — Mix the components.

Mix the components. Add all your zhoug components to a blender or meals processor, aside from the olive oil. Pulse just a few occasions so the combination comes collectively.
Add oil. Hold the processor operating and stream within the olive oil. As soon as that’s added, change off the meals processor and scrape down the perimeters earlier than pulsing once more.
Alter for seasonings. Style the sauce and alter your seasonings to style. I like to recommend including slightly at a time, mixing in between. You may at all times add extra, however you may’t take it away! While you’re comfortable along with your zhoug, serve it immediately or retailer it for later, see beneath.

Storage Directions

Refrigerate. You may serve zhoug sauce instantly or preserve it saved in an hermetic jar or container. To assist keep its freshness, pour a skinny layer of olive oil over the zhoug earlier than you seal the lid. It lasts for 5-7 days within the fridge.
Freeze. Sure, you may freeze zhoug! Freeze it in a freezer-safe container for as much as 6 months and thaw it within the fridge whenever you’re prepared to make use of it.